talking point

Centre for Mental Health and Wellbeing Research

A/Prof Peter Miller

1 School of Psychology, Deakin University 2 National Addiction Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, UK 3 NDRI, Curtin University 4 Commissioning Editor, Addiction 5 Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Ontario, Canada

The projects were funded by the National Drug Law Enforcement Research Fund,

which is funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing. "

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Intervention (voluntary) Police Date

Liquor Accord in various forms 1991

Safe City CCTV network 2004

Dry zones 2006

Safe Taxi Rank Jan 2005

Nightlife 1 (increased policing, police working with licensees) Jan 2007

Geelong night watch radio program April 2007

ID scanners Dec 2007

Nightlife 2 (Linking of scanners, NWRP, CCTV – more activity) Jan 2009

Nightrider bus Nov 2009

Nightlife 3 (Renewed activity – change in focus to fines) early 2010

Increased Fines and focus – State government Aug 2010

Safer streets taskforce / Operation Razon

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Trading restrictions

Reduced trading hours: all premises are prohibited from trading later than 3.30am

Lock-out: patrons must be prohibited from entering after 1.30am

Alcoholic drink restrictions (after 10pm)

No shots

No mixed drinks with more than 30mLs of alcohol

No RTD (ready to drink) drinks with an alcohol by volume greater than 5% alcohol

Not more than 4 drinks may be served to any patron at the one time

Responsible service of alcohol actions

Free water stations on all bar service areas

Responsible Service of Alcohol Marshall from 11pm until closure (staff member with

the sole responsibility of supervising RSA practices and consumption).

No stockpiling drinks/more than 2 unconsumed drink

Ceasing the sale and supply of alcohol at least 30 minutes prior to closing time.

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Item Total

%

(693)

% Reside in each city % Patron of premises in the last year

Geelong

(n=318)

(95% CI)

Newcastle

(n=376)

(95% CI)

P

<.01

Patron

(n=247)

(95% CI)

Non-patron

(N=446)

(95% CI)

P

<.01

Feel very unsafe/unsafe walking

alone in the precinct area after

dark:

21.5 21.8

[16.3-28.5]

21.3

[16-27.6]

- 36.6

[28.1-46.1]

13.3

[9.8-17.7]

<0.001

Increasing penalties for

premises and staff who

neglect to serve alcohol

responsibly

87.2 88.5

[82.9-92.3]

86.2

[80.4-90.4]

NS 87.2

[80-92.1]

87.2

[82.4-90.8]

NS

Police asking intoxicated

offenders location of their

last drink, and warning

premises

77.3 79.8

[73.3-85]

75.3

[68.6-80.9]

NS 70.8

[61.8-78.4]

80.9

[75.7-85.2]

0.008

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Strategy Total %

(693)

% Reside in each city % Patron of premises in the last

year

Geelong

(n=318)

95% CI

Newcastle

(n=376)

95% CI

P

<.01

Patron

(n=247)

95% CI

Non-patron

(n=446)

95% CI

P

<.01

1. Restrict alcohol access

Closing all late-night licensed premises earlier 71.1 71.5

[64.7-77.6]

70.7

[64.3-76.7]

NS 55.1

[46.6-63.7]

79.8

[74.5-84.2]

<0.00

1

If supported, appropriate closing time:

Before 12am 21 11.7

[8.1-16.8]

28.5

[22.9-35.7]

<0.001 8.5

[5.3-14.4]

27.7

[22.3-34.1]

<0.00

1

12.01am to 1am 20.7 14

[9.9-19.6]

26.1

[20.3-33.2]

<0.001 15.3

[10.1-22.8]

23.6

[18.7-29.5]

NS

1.01am to 2am 25.1 29.3

[22.9-36.7]

21.8

[16.7-28.1]

NS 24.6

[17.8-33.3]

25.4

[20.4-31.3]

NS

2.01am to 3am 23 31.9

[25-39.5]

15.9

[11.5-21.5]

<0.001 32.6

[24.5-41.9]

17.9

[13.7-23]

<0.00

1

After 3am 8.1 11.8

[7.6-17.5]

5.1

[2.8-8.7]

<0.001 16.7

[10.7-24.8]

3.4

[1.9-6.1]

<0.00

1

Reducing trading hours of premises located in

high-risk areas

79.2 78.2

[71.7-83.7]

80.1

[74-85.1]

NS 65

[55.9-73.3]

87

[82.5-90.5]

<0.00

1

Stricter restrictions on alcohol discounts and

promotions

71.9 72.1

[65.1-78.3]

71.8

[65.1-77.8]

NS 65

[56-73.2]

75.7

[70.1-80.6]

NS

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Self-rated intoxication (mean) over time

• Patron interviews showed changes in culture

o declining levels of pre-drinking and people

going out earlier

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Can’t rely on market forces

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Intervention β t

1. Night Watch Radio Program .007 .08

2. ID-scanners .016 .14

3. Just Think Campaign .433 4.7*

4. Operation Nightlife -.006 -.10

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Item Geelong Newcastle Total

Standard drinks consumed pre

‘going out’

- 0

- 1-5

- 6-10

- 11+

27.9%

38.7%

24.2%

9.1%

37.1%

37.8%

19.1%

5.9%

32.8%

38.2%

21.5%

7.4%

Why do you Pre-drink

- Price

34.8%

35.3%

35.1%

Involved in fight 15.7 15.3 15.5 How often have you seen police tonight?

- never

- once

- twice

- a few times

58.0%

23.2%

8.5%

6.0%

53.1%

26.1%

9.9%

8.0%

55.4%

24.7%

9.2%

7.1%

χ2=9.372,

p=.002

30%

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Item Geelong Newcastle Total

Other drug use (any) 8.5% 5.7% 7.0%

- Methamphetamine

- Cannabis

- Speed

- Ecstasy

- Refuse to tell (indicated drug

use)

2.7%

2.3%

1.4%

0.5%

1.1%

1.2%

1.9%

1.3%

0.4%

1.2%

1.9%

2.1%

1.3%

0.5%

1.1%

• Those who reported using drugs were significantly more likely to

report being in a fight (χ2=39.381, p<0.000).

• 12.6% of people who reported other drug use had been in a fight,

• whereas only 5.6 percent of those that did not report drug use

had been in a fight.

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• 898 venue observations

• 68 venues • Teams of 2-3

• Hourly observations

• Incident observations

• 1 venue per team per night

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Mean BAC level by time of day for each site

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• 23% of participants consumed energy drinks that night

• 14.6 % combined energy drinks with alcohol.

• Males and females similar.

Participants who consumed energy drinks with

alcohol :

• consumed significantly more energy drinks

• consumed significantly more alcohol

• significantly more likely to report illicit drug use

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–Daily

recommended

limit

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Drug TOTAL

n %

Ecstasy 231 3

Cannabis 196 3

Methamphetamine 179 3

Cocaine 97 1

Pharmaceutical stimulants 30 <1

LSD 15 <1

Opiates 10 <1

Benzodiazepines 8 <1

GHB 8 <1

Mephedrone 6 <1

Ketamine 5 <1

Other 32 1

ANY 1,072 16

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Large mainstream

pub

Bar Nightclub Total

TOTAL n 223 391 284 898

% of Total 25 44 32 100

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Figure 28 Patron intoxication trends by hour:

high visible intoxication

low visible intoxication

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• Pre-drinking is a major – and growing – problem with

very few viable approaches excluding price

• Illicit drug use predicts greater harm, but a minority

report drug use

• People who use energy drinks are typically higher risk

nightlife patrons who experience significantly more

harm, and exceed safe ED limits early night while

intoxicated

• RSA is failing demonstrably and needs far greater

enforcement

• We need more research on effective policing practises

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1. Trading hour restrictions, applied consistently across regions to ensure

businesses can compete on a level playing field.

2. An integrated strategy with a clearly-defined enforcement pyramid.

3. Bans on bulk-buys, two-for-one offers and other promotions based on price

deserve consideration as policy responses to reducing heavy episodic

drinking

4. Levies on each unit of alcohol sold by packaged liquor outlets to recover costs

associated with alcohol

5. For every alcohol advertisement, a government-produced public health

advertisement immediately follows which is funded via a levy on all sales by

alcohol producers informing the public of the harms associated with drinking

and addressing social norms around intoxication.

6. Policy trials of banning energy drink sales after 10pm

7. Public education campaigns should be trialled about the potential dangers of

mixing alcohol and energy drinks

8. Funded trials of interventions such as the ‘clubs against drugs’ program

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